Cassidy: Is Apple's Tim Cook worth $378 million? Is anyone?

In this Wednesday, March 7, 2012 photo, Apple CEO Tim Cook announces the new iPad in San Francisco. Apple says Cook is giving up $75 million in dividends on restricted stock. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, May 24, 2012, Apple Inc. says Cook requested that his restricted stock units not receive dividends. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

$377,996,538. That's how much the new Apple (AAPL) CEO made last year. That's not how much he's made in his lifetime. It's not how much money his company made, though that would be a fine profit for a company. That's how much he made in 2011, according to this newspaper's annual What the Boss Makes survey. More than a million dollars a day. Roughly, $43,151 an hour. About $57,534 for every hour he was awake (figuring he gets six hours a night). If he took his pay in $1 bills, it would weigh 417 tons. He could buy 757,515 iPads (not counting the employee discount). He'd have to spend it at a rate of $719 a minute to burn through his pay in a year.

To put Cook's pay package, the highest in the valley, in perspective: It's really, really a lot.

A caveat: All but about a couple million of Cook's 2011 pay was in Apple stock that vests over 10 years. So, if he leaves the company, depending on when he leaves the company, he might not see it all. But don't feel too badly. If he stays and the stock keeps rising (it's already within striking distance of doubling since it was granted) he'll make even more than $378 million for the year.

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The putting in perspective seems to get harder each year. Cook is by no means the first valley CEO to need a supertanker to get his paycheck home. Nine-figure pay packages are common enough that they barely make a splash in Silicon Valley. After all, this place is all about money. It's how we keep score. And for those keeping score at home, last year's No. 1, Oracle's (ORCL) Larry Ellison, is now No. 2. He's stuck in the $70-million-plus range, similar to last year.

Maybe we should make Ellison an honorary member of the 99 percent, given that his wages have stagnated.

OK, I admit it. I enjoy having a little fun at the expense of the rich. They can afford it after all. But there is a serious side to all of this. In some ways the valley's gargantuan pay packages are a symbol of the growing divide between the rich and the rest who live in this country.

I've written about this issue before and when I have, my email has included notes that say I must hate the rich. (I don't.) Or that I must believe that when it comes to pay, there is a point where enough is enough. (I might.) But the real reason I think this is worth talking about is that the growing disparity between the rich and those who are middle class or poor is a cause for concern.

Consider that between 1988 and 2008, according to the Internal Revenue Service, the inflation-adjusted income of an average taxpayer dropped by $400, to $33,000. During the same time, the richest 1 percent, those who make $380,000 or more, saw their incomes increase by 33 percent.

Then consider that when the majority sees or senses that the game is rigged against them -- that opportunity is much more available to a few, compared to the rest -- it erodes trust. People no longer feel vested in our democracy and our common interests. Those who have worked hard, only to fall behind, become restless.

"If you're a CEO of one of the big 500 companies, you're probably making as much in two or three hours as a normal wage worker is making in some cases in two or three years," says Sister Nora Nash, a Philadelphia-area Catholic nun, who works with the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. "How can you morally look at your life and see how that is just?"

I called Sister Nash, who's taken on Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein among others, because frankly I was struggling. Something seemed inherently wrong with the notion that one person, whose company's success relies on the work of hundreds of thousands of others around the world, should be paid nearly $400 million in a year. And, of course, the question goes well beyond Tim Cook. The What the Boss Makes survey is filled with executives who were paid far more than mere mortals would know what to do with.

But what? What exactly is wrong with paying an executive more than the GNP of a small country?

Sister Nash explained that the way she sees it, it's all about keeping our communities from coming apart at the seams. "We look at the problem of the growing inequity here in this country and throughout the world," she says. "And we say we really need to be working for the common good; and the common good of the human community is to bring about some sort of sustainability."

Instead, she says, more and more of the country is slipping into poverty. It's a bleak picture, but Sister Nash is keeping the faith (occupational hazard). Highly paid CEOs have tremendous power and tremendous means to do good. She points to the philanthropy of Bill Gates, who was for years vilified as a stingy billionaire, and his wife, Melinda.

"They've really taken the time to see what they can do to change the lives of people," she says.

And so, we can all hope that in time, Tim Cook and his fellow valley moguls will be popping for far more than a celebratory round of drinks.

Contact Mike Cassidy at mcassidy@mercurynews.com or 408-920-5536. Follow him at Twitter.com/mikecassidy.